Radicals Duck Hunting Issue

Germany`s Red-Green Coalition Drag Their Heels On The Much-Needed Hunting Law Reform

Six nature and animal protection organisations, under the umbrella of the Deutsche Naturschutzring, have begun an important protest campaign in connection with the hunting laws in Germany.

The new and urgently needed Federal Hunting Law (the old law dates from Hermann Goering`s days as responsible minister in the 1930s) has become bogged down at the draft stage and there are now proposals from some quarters to scrap the law entirely and delegate responsibility for control and regulation of hunting to the 16 provincial (Land) governments, each of which would implement their own, different, law. This would be disastrous. Competence and responsibility would be chaotic, the hunting seasons would almost certainly be extended, and more species would be added to the already long list of birds and animals which may be hunted.The failure of the bureaucracy to act decisively, and the hesitancy of the Social Democrat/Green coalition government to live up to election promises, threaten to put the environmental clock in Germany back some 70 years and hand the hunting lobby a victory on a plate without even a skirmish.

The organisations involved in the protest campaign (Tierschutzbund, NABU, BUND, Bund gegen Mi?brauch der Tiere, ?kologischer Jagdverband and the Komitee gegen den Vogelmord) appeal urgently for your support in this most important protest action initiated by conservationists in Germany for several years.You can register your protest by visiting the Proact site at http://www.proact-campaigns.net/ppsi/id47.html (and send a single mail in English) or go to the Hunting Reform Website at http://www.jagd-reform.de where you can send emails in German to the 4 most responsible German politicians in this matter (just click on the politician`s photo or the mail symbol - translations are given on the Proact pages for your information). Please involve you contacts friends, family and acquaintances in this action, which is extremely important not only for Germany, but for Europe as a whole.

In this 25th anniversary year of the EU Bird year Directive it is vital that there is no backsliding in bird and habitat conservation.